Inappropriate Interface Behaviour during mouseDown

[Igor Couto]

Hail Revolution Masters!

I have encountered a problem with the way Revolution implements mouseLeave/mouseEnter messages during mouseDown - well, actually, with the fact that it does NOT send these messages during mouseDown, therefore making the interface behave in an inappropriate manner. I'll try to explain better:

According to the Apple interface guidelines, items on the screen should give CONSISTENT and APPROPRIATE feedback to the user, guiding the user navigation and use of the interface, and indicating as clearly as possible what is happening at every instant.

Therefore, the normal behaviour of buttons or clickable items is described as follows:
1) The user should have a clear indication that the area they are in is a clickable area. This is either done by the use of a graphic element that clearly indicates that the area is clickable, or by changing the user's cursor when the user enters the clickable area, or by changing the appearance of the clickable area when the user is over it, therefore alerting the user that the area is 'hot clickable'

2) When the user presses a mouse button down, for which some action is programmed to occur, the user should be WARNED/ADVISED that an action is about to occur. That is why it is recommended that a change in appearance be implemented in a 'mouseDown' event (therefore alerting the user), while the actual ACTION itself be implemented in a 'mouseUp' event. This is to give the user the chance of 'moving away' while the mouse button is still pressed down, in case it was activated by accident. This requires that, if the user indeed no longer wants to carry out the action, once they move AWAY from the clickable area, the appearance should change BACK to its NORMAL or IDLE mode, indicating that the user is no longer in 'danger' of triggering the action. Similarly, if a user presses a mouse button OUTSIDE a clickable area, and then moves the cursor OVER a clickable area, then the clickable area should change its appearance, indicating that if the user lets go of the mouse at that location, an action will trigger.

The problem in implementing this behaviour in Revolution is that while the mouse is down, Revolution does NOT send mouseEnter/mouseLeave messages to objects. The 'mouseRelease' message exists, as far as I can see, precisely because while the mouse is down, if a user moves AWAY from the clickable area, this movement is not detected until AFTER the user has RELEASED the mouse. This makes for some incongruent/inconsistent behaviour. If a user presses down a button, and then moves away, the button should not remain highlighted once the cursor moves beyond the button's boundaries. By remaining highlighted, the button is telling the user that it is STILL armed and about to trigger an action, which is not correct. The reverse (pressing down outside the button and then moving onto it) is also true. It SHOULD trigger an action, because the user is releasing a button INSIDE the clickable area, but that does not happen in Revolution.

I reported this inconsistency to '[EMAIL PROTECTED]', but I was wondering whether:

* Has anyone else noticed this behaviour before, and found a way to work around it, in order to obtain the desired interface functionality?
* Does anyone know whether this issue will be addressed in version 2.0?

Your comments and suggestions are much appreciated!

Kind Regards,
--
Igor de Oliveira Couto
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[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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